The Love of Dance

Friday, 31 July 2015

And here we are again – it is Friday! Gosh, and there was
work, there was socialising, weddings, parties and yes, even some writing – all
of which happened from last Saturday today, Friday. I don’t know how it has
happened, but I don’t seem to have any spare time, which is a good thing –
mostly.

I have managed to get some writing done, but none of it is
typed up, that will have to wait a while. I have rewritten and started to
reread the YA I'm submitting to a competition later in the year. I'm quite excited
about ridding it of all the unnecessary parts and giving it a tummy tuck! Yes
it does have a soggy middle and then there is the rather quick ending. All will
be solved, fingers and everything crossed that is.

I have discovered a walk that I can do at lunch times within
fifteen minutes and still eat my lunch. It is 1.023 miles. It is good to get
out and walk briskly to invigorate the body and brain. I'm also hoping that it
will stop the backside from spreading!

Work is going well, lots of new experiences and decisions to
be made. Processes are coming together and with the wind blowing in the right
direction and a little good luck everything will flow seamlessly as the work
flows in. Exciting times. I love my job, I hope it will continue this way.

This week’s writing prompt is to sit quietly in a corner of
a room, any room and listen. What can you hear? Don’t just listen to the
chatter or the birds, listen to the things that usually go unnoticed the sounds
underneath the norm. Now use your other senses - look, smell and feel what is
around you. Now pick two of the characters below and put them into a scenario
where all your observations are used to enhance your piece of writing.

You can pick any of the boxes or one person from one box and a second from another.

The main part of this is to play with characterisation and how you can use the senses to enhance your writing.

Sunday, 26 July 2015

Friday made me smile. It was pouring with rain outside and
had been torrential most of the day, but inside it was been warm and cosy, most
of the time! Which is why I was shocked when I dashed outside with my hair
tucked into my trusty old hat and did the high heeled, tippy toe sprint across
the car park, through the puddles with my skin glistening on my shoulders. The
car was freezing and my heater took ages to heat up, ten minutes, but
eventually I was dry and cosy again! The same process happened when I got home.
The house was also freezing, but I cooked oven chips so it soon warmed up. Too
tight to put the heating on in the summer!

Work has been so good this week. I'm learning more and more
and with each day. There are many wonderful people in the office and all
willing to support when I can’t find what I need.

Saturday found me attending a wonderful wedding and for the
first time ever, I cried. It was a special wedding of two friends of mine. The
power of their commitment was radiating throughout the church and the love from
them was tangible. At the reception, I touched base with many friends that I've
not seen for a couple of years, and made some new contacts. Saw some of the
children I used to teach and after four years you really see how grown up they
are now.

Sunday brought a 30th Birthday party and a good time socialising and
catching up with my best friend. Lots of fun.

I had my first dancing lesson in three years – I loved it. I
can’t wait for the next one. I still don’t have my own dancing partner, but I
dance with my imaginary partner, marking things out and it seems to be working
and on occasion the trainer dances with me, which is great as he leads so well.
So following is easy.

The Windmill Writers were great again this week. We had a
chat about how to critique, how critiquing is about receiving and giving. Don’t
just expect others to comment on your work if you aren't willing to listen
intently and give feedback. We can’t have it being a one way street. After this
the critiques given were much improved.

I've managed to get some good writing done and many edits. Things are moving along nicely. Heading for three competitions this year. Exciting times.

For the topic task this week, I want you to look at the
image to find inspiration to write a piece of writing. This can be, fiction,
poetry or non-fiction. You decide. Think about your target market, where you
will sell your writing and why not give it a go and send it out?

Friday, 17 July 2015

A fantastic week. I've had a lots to do both at my day job
and with my writing. I've been having fun with new characters and learning more
about them as they allow me to delve into their lives. Even characters I
thought I knew well, are surprising me. I'm hoping this is a good thing. During
the Windmill Writers meeting this week it was pointed out that the male voice
in my piece wasn't male enough. This made me think. So I went into work and
spoke to men and after a while I gleaned a new kind of speech pattern that
might work. I've put some ideas together and have now rewritten the piece. This
means I have lopped off about 300 words and when I type up the edits I’ll see
if it has improved.

I'm also working on tightening up a YA novel to enter into a
competition. At present it has a bit of a soggy middle. There is a lot of work
to be done? And I'm going to have to put together a chapter by chapter plot
plan, which I've never done before. I believe this is to show the character arc
and the major events in each chapter. I'm
sure this will allow me to see where the weak points might be and if any chapter
doesn't have a major event crucial to the plot it might have to go or be
restructured accordingly. It will be a labour of love. And the one page synopsis. I still hate them, but will endeavour to make this one the best I've ever achieved.

Editing is one of the hardest parts of writing. Getting the
book written in the first place is difficult enough, but editing is more
painful. You may have to chop out whole scenes you are in love with just
because they don’t need to be there, they are superfluous to the plot. Hard, cruel
and heart-breaking, yes, but it will improve your work tenfold if you are brutal
for the right reason. I know this is correct, but doing it is excruciatingly painful.
Tearing yourself away from being the creator to becoming the improver. So wish
me luck and I’ll let you know how it is coming on as I hack my way through my
WIP with my metaphorical sword.

For this week’s writing task choose one of the following:

Yesterday should never have happened.

What! In the grave yard? You have to be joking, right?

Tuppence took sixpence out for a walk and we've not seen
them since.

You decided what genre to write these prompts. What is your
target market? Think about where this piece of writing could be sent for
publication. Why not write, edit and submit your work. Whatever you decide to
do, please remember to engage your reader throughout your work

Friday, 10 July 2015

This has been a rather lovely week. Work is busy, but good. There
was a moment when I could pass on some words of wisdom to a colleague. We were
discussing growing tomato plants, as you do, and I mentioned that mine had a
few nice little tomatoes already. My friend has been growing hers in the green
house and she said the tomatoes weren't setting. It was at this point I
explained that when tomatoes are in the greenhouse the bees might not be going
in to pollinate. I told her what my
father did and said I’d make her a cat fluff brush so she could pollinate them
herself. She was so chuffed when I took the little brush in to work the next
day. Not sure the cat was that happy, as she had to suffer the combing and she
hates that with a passion. My friend is now looking forward to lots of cherry
tomatoes in a month or so as long as she tickles them properly.

I've been so pleased
with the way my writing has been progressing this week, well over the last
couple of weeks. I've started a new WIP which appears to be writing itself. I'm
loving what is appearing on the page. I read the first part at the Windmill
Writers which went down very well. Apparently it is a little saucy and has a
strong voice. So I'm obviously doing something right. I'm managing around 1500
words a day, which is good considering I'm at work all day and writing at night
and making notes during my lunch break and typing up at night. I also love my
new Windows Phone which means I can also write word docs which I can email to
my laptop. It is a lovely new tool to me. I just hope this writing process
continues to go from strength to strength.

For the writing task this week. I have want you to select
one of the prompts below and create a piece of writing that conforms to the
brief.

A children’s picture book story maximum of 700 words. (make
every word count)

An article on Dr Elizabeth Blackwell born 1821 (do the research)

If you are a man write a scene from a females point of view. If you are female
write a scene from a male’s point of view. Your starting point is: “How could
you do that!”

Monday, 6 July 2015

Sorry to be late with this blog, but it has been a very busy
week, and a very exciting weekend. Firstly things with my new job are growing
steadily and I'm understanding more of the way the processes I've put in place
will come together to monitor every aspect. It has been a challenge, and made
my brain work on fast, but amazingly information has been absorbed. I've had a
taste of phase two and phase three will be coming along by the end of the
month. I've also had some praise

The weekend had me celebrating my best friend’s birthday
with her extended family. It was a great night and lovely to catch up with all
the family once again. Then it was catching up with Dad and doing the
gardening, digging up plants and re potting them into the large pots, my bestie
gave me. The plants are already looking happier in their ericaceous compost. Then
it was the massive de-heading of the flowers. Mowing the lawns, trimming shrubs
and weeding, lots of weeding. I did spend time reading and writing in the garden
and had some lovely me time. The garden takes up a lot of my time, but I'm now
able to keep on top of it all.

My wonderful friend Fiona and her lovely partner Billy, have
kindly given me a new display cabinet and made a special journey to deliver it
and fix it to the wall. I have had fun filling it up. I am now considering
painting all of the rest of the furniture to match the white cupboard. There
will be a lot of work to do. I will need to do lots of research on how to go
about this. If I'm going to do this, I need to do it correctly.

This week you are going to use the following sentence as a
starting point and the image to encourage your creative flow. Think about the sounds, the setting and the smells.

Sentence: From here I could see who she was meeting, and
this time I would have evidence.

Friday, 26 June 2015

When I first started out this month everything was new and
scary, still is a bit, but I'm enjoying everything I'm doing. I've got lots
still to learn and I'm sure I’ll be making mistakes along the way, but so far
so good.

I've been writing a little, but editing mostly and I've got
to start thinking about how I'm going to do a chapter breakdown for each
chapter of my children’s novels along with improving my synopses. I still hate
writing synopsis and I don’t think I’ll ever be any good at them. I never know
what to include and what to leave out and end up writing into the story rather
than laying out the bare bones. I'm hoping that one day that synopsis eureka
moment will open up in my mind and it’ll come together on the page.

The Windmill Writers was very enjoyable. Lots of readers and
critiquing. We have had to set a timer which enables each reader fifteen
minutes to read and receive comments. It is up to them how they utilise that
time. I think the time will come when we either have to join two tables
together or run two tables, and unfortunately this may mean people will miss
out on reading each week. However there is still an opportunity, for members,
to post sections of their work onto the Windmill Writers Facebook page and ask
for comments, which should be messaged to the author and not put as a comment
on the post, unless the author asks for the comment to be posted on the page.

Now for the writing prompt for this week, use all the words
below and link them to the image

Sunday, 21 June 2015

This week has been full of ups and downs. I have been
writing which is an up, work has been good and the sun has been out between the
rain showers this weekend giving me the chance to get back out do some de-heading
and tweaking along with mowing of the lawns. I'm really surprised how swiftly
the plants have grown this week. I might have to thin out some of the plants as
I think they are getting over crowded. The garden is looking really pretty now
and I'm able to bring some of the flowers inside. Carnations and red pinks! Along with some mock orange blossom, at least
I think that is what it is. Both scented and making the house smell divine.

On the down side, I have had car and phone
issues, mostly sorted now and today, I stood on the three prongs of a plug at
full walking speed. I now have a nasty bruise on the sole of my foot – very painful.

I have been trying to find a dancing partner, but no take up yet. I want to get
back to dancing twice a week to bring up my fitness and just for the love of
dance. I need to find someone who is dedicated to dancing and really wants to
do it. Dancing is a passion and I need to find someone with the same passion
and desire to get it right. So I’ll continue looking. My little dancing feet
want to get back in to the swing of it and my dance shoes are grief-stricken in
the corner of the room.

This week’s writing task is to choose one of the openings
and continue the story. You decide where it goes and what happens next. Aim to
write a 1000 words and make sure it has a beginning middle and end and the
character needs to have learnt something from travelling through the story.

“Well, I didn't expect you to say that!”

It lay crisping up in the middle of the lawn when Alfie
found it.

“Every time the sunshine’s down on me I remember you, and I
hate the sun because of that.”

The echoes of sunlight faded from the street as the night
crawlers raised their spiny fingers up through the grates in the sewers.

The main thing with any writing is to have fun with it, to
put passion into it and engage the reader from the outset.